Thought Riot The Dangerous Doctrine Of Empathy Lyrics

Last updated: 09/03/2003 04:40:17 AM

This is a song for the average American.
Let go of your realities
(middle class small town mentalities):
The truths - your truths -
That even now dominate your little world.
There are lives, and hopes, and dreams -
Other breathing human beings
Whose existence you ignore
With "harmless" jokes, and words, and more,
But you say that it's their choice,
As if that makes it all okay.
Well it's not okay.
Our nation's choking on apathy.
They wage a war you never had to declare
And sacrifice with their blood, love, and tears.
You've not the mind
To see the world through their eyes.
Your true colors show.
You don't fucking care.
You talk of world communities,
Oblivious to what that really means:
That you, yes, you,
Truly have the biggest part in this to play.
The ideals you so praise rest on one contingency:
You find some untapped empathy.
You've not the time to see the hurt in their eyes.
You don't even know.
Well I fucking care.
We proclaim greatness
And drown the logic that informs us
That "greatest" does not necessarily
Entail adequate or sufficient,
And this vocabulary reinforces our lethargy
By implying that improvement
Is a relic of the past.
Freedoms are not guaranteed in preserved ink,
But realized in the everyday relationships of a community.
Hope screams out for life
In the vein of choice
And each to his own.
I am disgusted by your blatant lack of care
For your fellow human beings
Suffering because of you,
And I don't blame you for who you are,
But for not attempting
To try to change yourself this day.
This is my truth of your liberty:
The dangerous doctrine of empathy.
This is a song for the average American
On who our future now rests upon,
And I fucking care.